When it comes to produce, consumers in southeastern Massachusetts are not buying local, even as the amount of farm land in the region increases, according to a food system assessment recently released by the Southeastern Massachusetts Food Security Network.

Together, Bristol, Plymouth and Norfolk counties have more than 1,700 farms encompassing more than 108,000 acres of farmland. But while the number of customers buying directly from farms is increasing, residents only spend $5.02 per person per year on food purchased directly at farm stands or farmers markets.

The reasons are unclear, said Sarah Kelley, who helped produce the report by analyzing census data.

“My guess, and it’s just a guess, is that it’s a convenience factor,” Kelley said. “People have to make an effort to make a habit to buy local and go to the farmers markets.”

From 2007 to 2012, the number of residents buying directly from farmers actually increased by 64 percent, according to the assessment. But residents are still getting an overwhelming share of their food from sources other than local farms. In fact, of the $157 million in market value produced by farms in the three counties, only 5.5 percent of that comes from sales to local residents.

“Buying local is growing; it just is a really small fraction of the total agricultural growth of the region,” Kelley said. “If you break it down and look at what people are actually spending on, local food is a very small percentage of food spending.”

The lack of local consumers is something Silverbrook Farm owner Andrew Pollack said he struggles with at his Dartmouth farmstand.

He said that there are very few “vibrant” farmers markets in the SouthCoast, and that he instead brings his produce to farmers markets in Boston and Cape Cod where he said buying directly from farmers is more popular.

“It’s very hard to sell produce in the local area,” Pollack said. “When we go to these other places, they always ask ‘Why are you here? Can’t you sell in your own community?’ But it’s like we can’t sell anything down here even though agriculture is really thriving.”

Pollack said he thinks shoppers need to be more conscious of where their food is coming from. If they were, he said he believes residents would rather support their neighbors instead of workers in other countries.

“When you see at a farmers market that the price is 50 cents extra, people don’t realize that’s money that goes toward paying their neighbor a reasonable, sustainable wage,” he said.

If buying local produce has anything to do with convenience, then that’s a boon for Almeida’s Vegetable Patch in Swansea.

Page 2 of 2 - Almeida’s has no problem drawing customers to its widely shopped location on Route 6. In fact, the parking lot is often packed with vehicles. Inside, shoppers fill their baskets with native sweet corn, radishes, tomatoes and other vegetables and fruits.

Joe Cordeiro, a sort of do-it-all employee of Almeida’s for the past 26 years, said business is good.

“We’re out picking corn every day at 5:30 in the morning. We pick squash every day and tomatoes,” Cordeiro said. “We have a lot of new (customers), a lot of young people.”

Part of the draw may be the location, the fact that Almeida’s is open daily until 6 p.m., or it may be something else.

“My husband is a corn junkie,” said customer Louise Renaud of Fall River. “Once the season hits, I’m here every week. Once the native stuff is out, you can’t beat it.”

Susan Murray, who owns Apponagansett Farm with her husband, Anthony Wood, said sales at the Dartmouth and New Bedford farmers markets are an important part of her farm’s income.

While she said she believes the markets she goes to “have been popular and are pretty busy,” she said that her farm could not survive without additional income from selling products wholesale.

“If we were trying to do all farmers markets, we would have trouble,” she said. “We’re doing just fine because we have a diversified customer base.”

Ann Richard, who runs the Fairhaven farmers market, said she believes it takes time for shoppers to “get into the routine” of buying local rather than from supermarkets.

Now in its seventh year, the Fairhaven market is “very vibrant,” she said, but it wasn’t always that way.

“I think it did take a while for people to say ‘OK, I won’t get my eggs at the grocery store, I want to know the farmer and know the person and the chickens providing my food,’” she said.